If there’s any garment that represents the shift from 2016 to 2017, the trench is it and the Fashionista pictured is about to be right on trend. Trench coats were designed as an alternative to the heavy wool serge coats originally worn by WWI British soldiers.The trench was invented as a lightweight, streamlined, flexible, and more weatherproof garment to the stuffy military wear for officers in, well, the trenches. And a stylish one at that. Wearing these trench coats as a post-War civilian outfit was a statement both in survival and style, and was soon in-demand for both men and women in Britain and across the pond.
Twenty-sixteen may have gone out like a lion, but you better believe 2017 won’t be coming in like a lamb. Twenty-sixteen was a year of a retro resurgence in fashion, tapping into nostalgia of our parents and our own from the ’70s and ’90s. Twenty-seventeen is all about a new year and a new look, seen via the runways. Some up-and-coming trends are tapping into ’80s influence, such as shoulder pads, sashes, chainmail, metallics, and all the trench coats. And them styles are fightin’ looks.
I spotted this Fashionista on an unseasonably warm winter’s day. On campus and on point, she was dressed in a pair of distressed black skinny jeans, a throwback black KISS top (fittingly homage-like to all the greats gone to soon), and the “It” accessory of 2017, a classic trench.
Though accessorizing with a pastel pink structured bag and a pair of heeled Chelsea boots, this Fashionista’s look says “I’m up and ready to fight,” underneath her soft-colored exterior. From her distressed skinnies to her coat’s structure, this look exudes a new kind of power look—less blazer, blouse and tailored jeans, and more Jean d’Arc.
Maybe 2016 wasn’t “just a bad year,” but a legitimately-destined-for-badness-because-it-was-written-in-the-stars bad year. Maybe having four Mercury in retrograde cycles in Aquarius, Taurus, Gemini and Capricorn had something to do with it. Either way, it’s time to take dressing to the nines to a whole new level, as it’s also written in the stars (and numbers) that 2016 was the end of a nine-year cycle. So here’s to bouncing back from the trenches, and making 2017 the epitome of a style statement.
